Nirvana HQ

Yes, nice update! I also prefer the light theme with dark blue. Although most updates are bug fixes at least the NHQ development is active and support excellent, they respond very quickly to any questions. Since all Nirvana HQ operating systems now share the same code base, hopefully it will not take long before the next interesting update.

@Bill Myers: I think the superiority of NHQ is it's simplicity. For GTD one does not want to think about using the tools at hand, they should have minimal impact on your work flow (just in a way like paper does) and the mind like water mindset. So (agree with you), for me there is no other tool so simple and 99% close to the GTD methodology.

I'm using Onenote for reference and project support with the A.P.A.R. method. It works well for me, I'm however keeping my eye our to be able to use one tool for all, that is a challenge though. So for now these wil stay my GTD tools as I'm closing into retirement at the end of this year and can keep it as simple as possible. Looking forward to a zero email inbox at the beginning of the day!
 
I'm also excited about the latest update.

  • Funny side story... see my previous post in this forum about a similar facelift that made it's way into the Nirvana beta back in 2022. I used the beta and experimented with some of the theme colors including one I really came to dislike, some kind of sea foam green or something. Anyway, before I had a chance to change it, the feature was removed. This left my Nirvana UI stuck in sea foam green until these recent updates - nearly 2 years! So I'm definitely glad to get my theme back to normal.

It's definitely good to see Nirvana getting a little attention. But let me also add, Nirvana wins hands-down/as-is for my purposes. There's nothing better - for me - after crunching my tasks/notes back & forth through dozens of tools for years and years.

Anyway, I'd like to highlight the small note "for now" in the release notes (pasted below) that hopefully could mean some very interesting enhancements are planned. If Nirvana allows more than text & URLs in the notes field, that could mean Markdown support or what I'd really like is Toggle Lists & Tables. Either of these features would enable less dependency on outside notes tools. I currently put UpNote links in some of my Nirvana tasks where I need more formatting like Toggle Lists or Tables.

Heck, while I'm driving Nirvana development :p, I'd like to be able to:
  • paste images into Tables
  • paste Images & Tables into collapsible Toggle Lists

August 29, 2024

Android & iOS, version 3.9.0

  • New: Tap “share” from other Android apps to create new to-do’s directly in Nirvana (text and urls only, for now).
  • Updated a bunch of stuff under the hood to keep current with latest Android requirements.
Click to expand...
 
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bobusa said:
@Bill Myers: I think the superiority of NHQ is it's simplicity. For GTD one does not want to think about using the tools at hand, they should have minimal impact on your work flow (just in a way like paper does) and the mind like water mindset. So (agree with you), for me there is no other tool so simple and 99% close to the GTD methodology.
Click to expand...
I don't feel that I can objectively judge whether an app is "superior" or not. But I do agree with you that Nirvana's simplicity is one of its' strengths.
 
tdurden said:
  • Funny side story... see my previous post in this forum about a similar facelift that made it's way into the Nirvana beta back in 2022. I used the beta and experimented with some of the theme colors including one I really came to dislike, some kind of sea foam green or something. Anyway, before I had a chance to change it, the feature was removed. This left my Nirvana UI stuck in sea foam green until these recent updates - nearly 2 years! So I'm definitely glad to get my theme back to normal.
Click to expand...
Right! Something similar happened to me as well back then, I had the "plum" color theme for quite some time on my Windows version and just recently I changed it.
 
tdurden said:
Anyway, I'd like to highlight the small note "for now" in the release notes (pasted below) that hopefully could mean some very interesting enhancements are planned.
Click to expand...
That could be very good for Nirvana users -- assuming they don't bog down the app with extraneous features. Like I said in my prior post, I like Nirvana's simplicity.
 
Count me in as an avid Nirvana enthusiast. It's been 6 years since I bought the "Lifetime" license. I mean, it's my daily driver, I spend more time inside this app than nearly any other! Any love given to it in the form of updates is welcomed by me.

That said...there is something bothering me about the app. I recently was writing a long-form note in the "Notes" field of one of my actions. Before finishing this note, I was reminded of the context I should give to a related action, so I clicked out of the Notes window in order to apply that context/tag. Guess what? Nirvana does not auto-save notes! So when I went back to complete that note, it was gone. In fact, if you click out of that window at any time while drafting a note, it'll wipe that note from existence. I lost over an hour of work in this instance and learned a valuable lesson....Nirvana is half-baked in a lot of areas that we take for granted in a modern app.
 
Chuck Liston said:
Count me in as an avid Nirvana enthusiast. It's been 6 years since I bought the "Lifetime" license. I mean, it's my daily driver, I spend more time inside this app than nearly any other! Any love given to it in the form of updates is welcomed by me.

That said...there is something bothering me about the app. I recently was writing a long-form note in the "Notes" field of one of my actions. Before finishing this note, I was reminded of the context I should give to a related action, so I clicked out of the Notes window in order to apply that context/tag. Guess what? Nirvana does not auto-save notes! So when I went back to complete that note, it was gone. In fact, if you click out of that window at any time while drafting a note, it'll wipe that note from existence. I lost over an hour of work in this instance and learned a valuable lesson....Nirvana is half-baked in a lot of areas that we take for granted in a modern app.
Click to expand...
Hi Chuck, I presume that to be with the desktop version? In the App versions there is a full size text editing window and it saves the content when you go back with the arrow. But good to know. In any case, I do not trust the note section other then short notes, checklists or email content send to the NHQ inbox. For any important (project) support materials I use Onenote. It saves anything you type or draw automatically.
It would be better however for the next NHQ update to have a rich text editor with an automated save algorithm.
 
On a roll with another update!
April 30, 2025

Windows & macOS, version 3.9.10

New: Filter by (not) Tag by clicking on tags twice — the first click will filter to show only tasks containing that tag. Click again to get the inverse… all the tasks that do not have that tag. Ctrl+click (Windows) / Cmd+click (macOS) to combine multiple tags.

New: Copy Tasks in current view (or just selected tasks) for pasting into other apps on your computer. The format is “light-markdown” in that it’s easy to read as plain-text, but has just enough formatting for markdown compatible apps. Ctrl+C (Windows) / Cmd+C (macOS).

New: Print Tasks in current view from desktop app. Finally, no need to switch to the web-browser version of Nirvana for printing. Ctrl+P (Windows) / Cmd+P (macOS).

Fix: Update Notifications when new desktop versions become available is now less aggressive.

These are very useful indeed.
 
Chuck Liston said:
That said...there is something bothering me about the app. I recently was writing a long-form note in the "Notes" field of one of my actions. Before finishing this note, I was reminded of the context I should give to a related action, so I clicked out of the Notes window in order to apply that context/tag. Guess what? Nirvana does not auto-save notes! So when I went back to complete that note, it was gone. In fact, if you click out of that window at any time while drafting a note, it'll wipe that note from existence. I lost over an hour of work in this instance and learned a valuable lesson....Nirvana is half-baked in a lot of areas that we take for granted in a modern app.
Click to expand...
I see what you mean! Yes, if you have a next action open and you don't click on "save" before closing or moving from that window, Nirvana doesn't save it. I think I got used to this behaviour in Nirvana and I always make sure to click save. But I think it's a good thing to suggest the developers for implementation.
 
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I really appreciate how Nirvana handles active filtering by context. It’s such an easy and effective way to narrow down your Next Actions list to the most relevant tasks at the moment.

This is especially important because choosing the right task from a long list can create cognitive load — sometimes enough to drain your energy before you’ve even started working.

But I'm not very optimistic about the future development of the app.
 
Lucas W. said:
I really appreciate how Nirvana handles active filtering by context. It’s such an easy and effective way to narrow down your Next Actions list to the most relevant tasks at the moment.

This is especially important because choosing the right task from a long list can create cognitive load — sometimes enough to drain your energy before you’ve even started working.

But I'm not very optimistic about the future development of the app.
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I understand where you're coming from. There have been some promises in the past from the developer and sometimes it looks like he's keeping his customers on the line. However, in my view there is no simpler GTD tool then Nirvana HQ. So, even if it stays the way it is, I will be fine with that. The more options they add the more it will start to look like the other apps with a zillion settings and options, which deduces from a clear mind, and one loses focus. But of course, this is all very personal. there are plenty that love to have as many options as possible and that's fine as well if you like to thinker around.
And yes, I've tried many GTD (like) apps, but none do better at, as you correctly describe, active filtering of the next actions and all in one view.
 
Chuck Liston said:
Nirvana is half-baked in a lot of areas that we take for granted in a modern app.
Click to expand...
I suppose the owner(s) of Nirvana could dump a lot of money into it to "modernize" it. To justify that investment, though, they'd probably also have to boost their subscriber numbers by redesigning it to appeal to non-GTDers. That would eliminate both the simplicity and GTD focus that appeals to so many of its users.

It's been my observation that GTD-focused apps just don't make as much money as the Todoists of the world because there aren't enough of us GTDers. So you can choose an app that is pretty consistent with the GTD methodology but isn't updated as often and doesn't have the newest, coolest capabilities. Or you can choose an app like Todoist which does have the cool new things, but you have to do a bit of work to set it up for GTD and dumb it down enough to hide the bells and whistles that get in the way of a good GTD practice.

There is no right or wrong answer here. You choose what you think is best, but you can't have both.
 
While it's nice to see Nirvanahq picking up the pace of development, I'd love to see more than just new themes. The stuff like @bobusa posted is a pretty good move in that direction.

I'll take fewer features over this AI garbage that's all over the place, though. I realize we're not going to hold AI back any more than we could have held back the internet or cloud computing. But if you're old enough to remember the dot com bubble of the early 90s, people learned that if your business model was crappy becoming a "dot-com" didn't make it any less crappy. By the same token, a bloated, poorly designed app isn't made better with AI. Call me a neo-luddite but I'll do my own thinking and organizing.
 
Bill Myers said:
I suppose the owner(s) of Nirvana could dump a lot of money into it to "modernize" it. To justify that investment, though, they'd probably also have to boost their subscriber numbers by redesigning it to appeal to non-GTDers. That would eliminate both the simplicity and GTD focus that appeals to so many of its users.

It's been my observation that GTD-focused apps just don't make as much money as the Todoists of the world because there aren't enough of us GTDers. So you can choose an app that is pretty consistent with the GTD methodology but isn't updated as often and doesn't have the newest, coolest capabilities. Or you can choose an app like Todoist which does have the cool new things, but you have to do a bit of work to set it up for GTD and dumb it down enough to hide the bells and whistles that get in the way of a good GTD practice.

There is no right or wrong answer here. You choose what you think is best, but you can't have both.
Click to expand...
I generally agree with your main point that GTD-focused apps have a slower development schedule and fewer flashy new features.

That said, I think some of Nirvana’s missing functionality isn’t about GTD at all—it’s just about basic usability. Take capture, for example. There’s still no ubiquitous way to quickly add something to your inbox unless you’re already inside the app or sending an email to your Nirvana address. That’s too much friction for something that should be instantaneous. Other apps—GTD-specific or not—have nailed this with a bevy of different quick entry tools.

"Auto-save" is another big one. I’ve lost input just by switching tabs within the app, which feels like a fundamental oversight. A trusted system should feel trustworthy. Losing work, and by extension time, is antithetical to the benefits advertised by a stellar list management app.
 
Bill Myers said:
I suppose the owner(s) of Nirvana could dump a lot of money into it to "modernize" it. To justify that investment, though, they'd probably also have to boost their subscriber numbers by redesigning it to appeal to non-GTDers. That would eliminate both the simplicity and GTD focus that appeals to so many of its users.

It's been my observation that GTD-focused apps just don't make as much money as the Todoists of the world because there aren't enough of us GTDers. So you can choose an app that is pretty consistent with the GTD methodology but isn't updated as often and doesn't have the newest, coolest capabilities. Or you can choose an app like Todoist which does have the cool new things, but you have to do a bit of work to set it up for GTD and dumb it down enough to hide the bells and whistles that get in the way of a good GTD practice.

There is no right or wrong answer here. You choose what you think is best, but you can't have both.
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It is easier for developers to have a single platform to support, or at least a small set of similar development environments. The Apple ecosystem provides that along with a large market share at the higher end of the market. Todoist is unusual in the marketplace because its core functionality is both well-developed and available on a wide number of platforms. The limitations of this approach shows up as they try to expand functionality; you can see this clearly in their calendar support, for example. There are developers, Facile Things for example, who are committed to a GTD-specific implementation, and have a higher annual cost than Todoist. Omnifocus and Things, while Apple only, are less strict, feature-rich, and have a relatively inexpensive one-time cost. It’s the old Invisible Hand at work.
 
Sadly I don't trust Nirvana. wether I find the software really great for GTD, It works very well, the main problem is that the develop too slowly and there is no innovation. Will it belong in 5 or 10 years ? No one knows really. Also there is still a big lack with the security of datas. There is no real safe and import as the great Omnifocus does. Also the software is not as well known and powerfull than Todoist for example which is more adaptable and not really full focus to GTD approach. At last Nirvana ergonomic still remains bad as todo ist and others like things, Omnifocus or todoist are better and better.

This is why I decided to stick to Omnifocus for my professional life and as I could not get rid of it I kept Things 3 for ma personal life I kept it for it.
I could make both of them on TODOIST but I noticed, what I never thought before, that keeping well separated my personal and professional life was much better for me about GTD Control or Horizons.

Omnifocus perspectives and the way it works is also much more adapted for my professional life than anything. On the other hand Things and it incredible ergonomic makes a perfect personal system.

So I finally obtained the best of the 2 worlds.
 
A trusted system is not the same for everyone. The tools, as we know, really do not matter. What does matter is to have a state of "mind like water". And to maintain to many complex tools, there's less time to be in that state, like David Allen says, sometimes you don't want to do anything! So for me, i want to keep the tools as simple as possible and doing it all in one tool like NirvanaHQ while using the Areas for @work and @home, keeps life nicely integrated as DA recommends. Again, for me. I understand the user who loves to have as many features as possible and play around with them, the tools should also be fun to use I guess, i get that.
 
mcogilvie said:
It is easier for developers to have a single platform to support, or at least a small set of similar development environments.
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That's a good point. While I hope I'm not being overly argumentative, I wonder if this is an either-or proposition. Nirvana and Evernote have solved this problem by moving to the cross-platform Electron framework. But a Nirvana subscription is far less than Evernote. Given the relatively small number of reviews for Nirvana in the Apple app store, I'd wager Evernote's user base also dwarfs Nirvana's. I think for Nirvana to keep up with the Joneses they'd have to invest heavily in development and marketing so they could appeal beyond the GTD crowd. But then it wouldn't be Nirvana anymore, at least not the way we've known it.
 
FocusGuy said:
Sadly I don't trust Nirvana. wether I find the software really great for GTD, It works very well, the main problem is that the develop too slowly and there is no innovation. Will it belong in 5 or 10 years ? No one knows really.
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Whether to like or trust Nirvana is up to the individual, so I wouldn't presume to tell you to change how you feel. On the other hand, how can you be sure Omnifocus will be around in five or 10 years? I don't think we can know that, either.

Nirvana has been getting updates out much faster than before. Bug fixes come out relatively quickly. The new features they release won't impress anyone who wants something cutting edge, but the developer is giving the app care and feeding.

As for innovation, all list managers have blurred together for me. Regardless of how many features they have or don't have ultimately all they do is manage lists. You can have all sorts of complex project plans and ideas but ultimately it all comes down to next actions: make a call, send an email, draft a document, buy cat food. For my tastes Nirvana handles those quite elegantly.
 
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